Mr Blyth, who takes up his appointment on July 1, said many claims made about what happened following the Howard government's election in 1996 were myths, and the ACT's economy was more resilient and diverse than many people realised.

He said Canberra house prices had almost doubled between 1996 and 2007, that more public service jobs were cut in the last year of the Keating government than in the first year of the Howard government, and that Canberra had already been in recession before the 1996 election.

The former banker, political adviser and university teacher said changes usually came with opportunities, and there was more to Canberra than its public sector.

''There is a tendency in this town to talk as if every job is a public service job,'' he said.

''That just isn't true; there are 24,000 small businesses in the region, and of Australia's 165,000 federal public servants only 40 per cent are based here.

''We have already seen public sector spending scaled back in the last two budgets, and the ACT has absorbed it.''

Mr Blyth said Canberra's economy was quite unique and his role as chamber chief involved capitalising on the differences.

''Many people would be surprised to learn that the ACT's major source of imports is Ireland,'' he said.

Ireland exports products worth $8 million to Canberra every year - and it's not just Guinness.

''The territory's largest single import category, worth more than $10 million a year, is computers. Most come from Dell's plant in Ireland.''

Mr Blyth said Canberra's first 100 years had been largely preoccupied with public administration.

''We have a new century and a new chamber [of commerce],'' he said. ''We need to be thinking about Canberra 2.0.

''We are a young city, the average age is 34½, and 76 per cent of our workforce have post-secondary school qualifications - that is 10 per cent above the national average.

''Western Australia has its mines; Canberra has minds, and we should be capitalising on them.''

Australia's only city-state should be marketing its strengths while acknowledging, and correcting, its weaknesses.

''We want to attract people to Canberra to live and work,'' Mr Blyth said. ''One way to do that would be to contrast the commuting experience in Sydney or Melbourne with what we have here.''

Public transport, by contrast, is not at the same level.

''I didn't have the car for a day recently and had to travel to a one- hour meeting by bus.

''The 32-kilometre round trip took me three hours - the same time as it takes to get to Sydney by coach. This could do with some tweaking.''